Once again Obama has shown the US to be a paper tiger. The Chinese don’t respect us and we have told the Philippines to pound sand. If China continues to dominate Scarborough Shoal they will control virtually all shipping routes through this area of the world. There will be no more “international waters”.

This is on the Obama/Kerry watch but it is associated with Clinton’s policies. If she becomes President the next step will be for China to declare The Philippines part of their sphere.

We suffered a great many casualties liberating them from imperial Japan. Now we are willing to just turn this fine country over to China? I have been there many times and I doubt that the Filipinos will agree to this. But they may have no choice.

Hat top to IHS Jane’s

The Philippines has demanded an explanation from China over what it said was an increasing number of Chinese boats spotted near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea (SCS), Reuters news agency reported on 4 September.
A Philippine Air Force aircraft that flew over the shoal (known as the Panatag Shoal in the Philippines and Huangyan Island in China) a day earlier had spotted more boats than usual, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana was quoted as saying.
“There were four Chinese coastguard ships and six other vessels, including blue-coloured barges, around Scarborough Shoal,” Lorenzana reportedly said in a text message sent to reporters. “The presence of many ships other than coastguard in the area is a cause of grave concern,” he added.
China has maintained a continuous presence in the area ever since seizing the shoal after a stand-off in 2012.
Lorenzana also said that Beijing had tried to send dredging barges to the shoal earlier this year, but that there was no sign of any reclamation activity so far.
“We don’t know yet if those barges are precursors of future dredging operations,” he said, adding: “If they try to construct anything in Scarborough it will have a far-reaching adverse effect on the security situation.”
The incident comes after an international tribunal ruled on 12 July that China’s claim to ‘historic rights’ within most of the SCS has no legal basis: a decision that has angered China and sparked fears Beijing may accelerate its effort to establish de facto control over the disputed area through land reclamation and military deployments.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, a tribunal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), decided on a case brought by the Philippines that argued Chinese activity in the region violated international law